Virtually everyone living in regions with developed economies eventually receives, and therefore needs to cash, paper or printed checks such as, but not limited to: government checks; paychecks; tax or other refund checks; rebate checks; and/or personal, i.e., party-to-party checks. However, many people do not have bank accounts and have little, or no, connection to traditional banks at all. Consequently, these non-bank affiliated consumers are typically left with very few options for converting paper checks into usable funds.
One option currently available to non-bank affiliated consumers is to cash their paper checks at various “second tier” check cashing locations such as dedicated check cashing establishments, large retail stores/outlets, pawn shops, etc. However, these second tier check cashing locations typically charge significant fees to cash checks, if they will cash them at all. As a result, the non-bank affiliated consumers, who often are in the most need of the funds, must often surrender significant portions of these needed funds in order to obtain access to what, in reality, is their money.
In addition, even in cases when a non-bank affiliated consumer is allowed to cash his or her check at a second tier check cashing location, the consumer is typically literally provided cash in exchange for the check and, while cash is very tangible medium, it is also easily stolen or lost. To make matters worse, many businesses in today's economy, such as Internet-based businesses, do not accept cash and require some form of debit or credit card payment. However, currently, many non-bank affiliated consumers have little or no way of easily converting cash into a debit or credit card balance, and even in the rare cases/systems where they can, there is again typically a significant fee required to do so, and/or significant limitations are placed on the use of the resulting debit or credit card balance, such as in-store use only.
As a result of the situation described above, currently, non-bank affiliated consumers have no simple and/or easy way convert paper check funds into debit or credit card balances. In addition, even when such a conversion is possible, using current systems, the non-bank affiliated consumers are often forced into a multi-step process, and are charged two or more significant fees by two or more parties at two or more separate locations, as they must first convert their paper check funds into cash and then convert their cash into debit or credit card balances. This situation not only represents a disservice, and significant economic burden, to the non-bank affiliated consumers, but it also inhibits the free flow of commerce.